Zak Derekson
Zachariah "Zak" Derekson is a main protagonist of the fanfiction series the Ronin Chronicles. He is a Second Generation Freelancer, under the callsign Agent California, a Spartan-IV, and one of the original founders of Team Ronin. Character History Early Life and Enlistment: Zachariah "Zak" Derekson, also known by his codename Agent California. Born May 19, 2533, on the colony world of Elysium to ODSTs Johnathan and Andrea Derekson. With his parent's military background, Derekson always wanted to become a soldier and live up to his parents' names. This was further strengthened when his father was KIA in an operation against the Covenant. While growing up on Elysium, he befriended, the then, Jr Lance Corporal Icarus Chase, the last remaining Nightingale of New Angeles, and a fact he would learn much later. Upon graduation from high school, Derekson enlisted. During training, he proved to be a very capable fighter. A fast learner, he quickly reached the top of the leaderboards, and caught the eye of Councilor of Project Freelancer who was recruiting for the Second Generation Freelancers. Derekson was chosen for the project, which he accepted, and was given the codename Agent California. While serving with the Freelancers, he was placed under the command of another Freelancer known as Agent Arizona, along with Freelancers Indiana, Jersey, and Virginia. After serving for about a year with them, he became a fairly capable fighter. However he had often come to conflict with Arizona due to conflicting morals. 1st Battle of Elysium In 2552, California was brought back to his homeplanet of Elysium. Elysium had become a point of interest for the Covenant due to the hidden cache of powerful Forerunner weaponry. By creating an alliance with the Insurrectionists, they were able to gain access to this armory, and were planning on using its contents to wipe out the UNSC. Luckily, the Nightingales of New Angeles and New Kyoto had retrieved an important piece of information, the armory's weapons couldn't be used without a device known as a Forerunner Control Helix. With this information, the UNSC sent Arizona's team to retrieve the device from a Forerunner Fortress. The team descended into the Fortress, albeit not without the loss of Freelancer Jersey and Indiana. Upon reaching the device's holding area, the remaining Freelancers were ambushed by an Sangheili Zealots. California and Virginia were rendered incapacitated, however Arizona was able to break free and reached the artifact. However, upon picking up the device, Arizona became corrupted by some unknown force who granted him inhuman strength, speed, reflexes, and agility, as well as a strange ability to affect the human mind. As he gained these new powers, Agents Virginia and California had recovered and witnessed in horror as Arizona used his new powers on the Sangheili, and in his bloodlust, turned on the Freelancers. Started with Virginia, and using his abilities, he assaulted her mind and afterwards killed her by stabbing her in the chest with an energy sword. Afterwards, he turned on California. However, before the new Freelancer could be dealt any permanent damage, he was saved by an intervention from the now Jr. Lt. Chase, causing the traitor to flee the scene. California, as shaken as he might have been, was brought back to reality by Chase. Both discovered the Helix was gone and realized that the Covenant-Insurrectionist alliance were in possession of it. The two returned to the surface and were given orders to help the evacuation of the planet. While they were evacuating the people, the alliance had raised the armory's contents, revealing them to be a fleet of Cleanser Sentinels. In the ensuing battle, almost all of the New Angeles and New Kyoto Nightingales were KIA. The survivors, including Lt. Chase and California, found a way to stop the Sentinels. The two took a pair of Atmospheric Booster Frames and headed to the Prime Sentinel. After fighting off the soldiers on board, they reached the main control room, where after a standoff with the alliance's leaders, retrieved the Helix and proceeded to the reactor where, as Icarus had realized, they would destroy it, creating a Slipspace rift that would destroy all of the other Sentinels. However, before they reached the reactor, the two went through the escape pod wing of the ship. Realizing that by destroying the reactor, the destroyer would be killed, Icarus gave the Helix to a protesting California and kicked him into a specially designed cryo/escape pod, saving his friend. California's pod successfully activated, and landed safely in the Iizscara Ocean. Recovery and Return Approximately eight years later in 2561, Derekson's pod was finally recovered by his sister, Alice Derekson. Upon finding it, they discovered that it pod was still completely intact and had perfectly preserved the Freelancer in stasis. Derekson was awakened, and after two and a half months of rehabilitation from missing ten years of his life, he was returned to the military. Along with his Freelancer training and abilities, Derekson received the Spartan IV enhancements, making him even stronger. He was also finally given an AI, Omicron, and an armor enhancement, a Kinetic Thermal Expulsion Unit. As his old unit was KIA, California was reassigned to multiple different units during the first year after his recovery, during which he met many others who would become good friends, including Agent Japan, Acrion Sythe the Lone Wolf, and Danaxo Allium. Japan he met during his training with the Spartan IVs; Allium he became friends with when he had been assigned to work with him on an criminal investigation mission; and Sythe he became acquainted with after the latter tried to assassinate him, but chose not to do so in the end. Alliance with Noble and Sangheili Civil War n 2562, California was assigned with Special Operations and Fleetmaster Sangheili Toram Soramee on a mission to investigate the ruins of Sword Base on Reach. It was here he first met the rogue Freelancer known as Agent Noble. While they held the Freelancer captive, and before she escaped, she and California conversed, and by doing so made California see the things that were potentially very wrong with the UNSC's current leadership. And a month later, California decided to take the initiative and went to Agent Noble again. Not to capture her and bring her to the authorities, but to join her and help bring the UNSC's corruption down. The two, who had surprisingly developed some kind of affection for one another, both gladly served alongside one another. Also, during his time with Agent Noble, California met and became good friends with Agent Iceland, another Freelancer who had sided with Noble. Noble, deeming their team to be strong enough to take on their mission, and began with taking out smaller targets. Eventually however, he was contacted by his old partner Toram Soramee. His partner suprisingly contacted them to ask for their help as a civil war was beginning on Sanghelios. California had told his old partner that they would go, however Noble, due to absolutely despising the Sangheili, vehemently disagreed with him. This sparked a short, but major fight between the two over their views of the Sangheili. The result was Noble running off and Washington and Maine siding with her, and Zak headed out on a mongoose, feeling he needed to give Noble some space, but also because he received a message from his sister, telling that he needed to meet her at an abandoned ONI facility. However it turned out that this was actually a trap. The UNSC, who was starting to get very angry at how the Freelancers were causing havoc for them, were contacted by Agent Arizona who was seeking revenge on Zak for the events on Elysium. He led his old subordinate into a trap, by using his sister as bait. Noble, who had very quickly managed to learn about Cal's predicament, had come to his rescue. However, due to her underestimation of Arizona's abilities she was brutally beaten and injured and were both brought aboard the UNSC Infinity. Luckily, Agent Iceland had also been watching, and contacted Toram Soramee, asking him to bring a fleet to help them rescue their friends. During the rescue, Cal and Noble were able to meet with Jun-A266 (Noble's adopted father) and Alice, who was imprisoned aboard the ship and would've been tortured by Arizona had they not broken free. The Freelancers, now reunited and aboard the ship of the Sangheili Fleetmaster Toram Soramee, headed to Sanghelios to help with the civil war. Personality Zak is an introvert and is often described as quiet among those he doesn't know, and getting to know people or being in large crowds is not his strongest ability. However among those he calls friends, he displays traits of , friendliness, sarcasm, and is typically a normal human being. He is also described as brave, selfless, and surprisingly kindhearted. Three defining traits of Zak are his high virtues, his sense of justice, and his idealism. He has shown to be extremely protective of those he cares about, and always chooses to help others. His choices often reflect this, such as his choice to go to Sanghelios to help Toram Soramee, even though Noble didn't want to. Other than that, he is generally very levelheaded and calm, though if he is truly angered he will act on it, though this is rare. Abilities As a Freelancer and Spartan IV, Zak is an exceptionally skilled fighter. Extremely versatile in all types of weaponry, he has developed a sort of adaptability when it comes to weapons making him very "Jack of all trades, but master of none". He also possess the Kinetic Thermal Expulsion Unit (KTEU), a device attached to his wrists that allows him to spray an ignited napalm onto his hands which are specially fireproofed and extremely heat resistant. Using said napalm, he is capable to utilize it to greatly enhance his deadliness in hand-to-hand combat or, similar to the Jiralhanae Firebomb Grenade, he can create fireball like explosives for ranged usage. Aside from combat skills, he has also shown some talent with working computers, and apparently had a talent for playing a musical instrument as a kid, though it's never which one. Relationships Alice Zak has the closest relationship with his sister, as they've known each other longer than any other character. Their relationship (at least after Zak's return) is mainly rooted in both their parents being deceased, leaving them as their only immediate family. Both Zak and Alice admitted that the other was always the one who was there for them, through both good and bad times. While technically Alice is 10 years younger than her brother, because of his time in stasis they are biologically the same age. This has caused an extent of tension between the two as Zak occasionally acts somewhat over-protective of Alice, something that often times irritates her, especially when it comes to guys she's into. However, they both care for each other immensely, and have displayed a willingness to sacrifice their own lives to protect one another. They are often seen with one another, get along extremely well, and are able to work together in harmonious synchronization during combat. Danaxo Danaxo and Zachariah met in the year after he awoke from stasis, when both were assigned to investigate murder and other crime reports on a colony world. During their investigation, both got to learn much about one another, among those things were that they possessed very similar values and goals which included protecting those who Trivia *Zak, much like several other main characters, shares his birthday with his creator *Zak's favorite food is orange chicken, and his hobbies include listening to music and watching anime. Yes, you read that correctly.